Assam and West Bengal, India – Ufa Ali may barely stand.
On Might 31, the 67-year-old bicycle mechanic returned to his house in India’s northeastern state of Assam after spending 4 harrowing days stranded in Bangladesh, the neighbouring nation he claims he had solely heard of “as a slur” since delivery.
Ali’s weeklong ordeal started on Might 23 when he was picked up by the police from his rented home in Kuyadal, a small village in Assam’s Morigaon district, throughout a authorities crackdown on “declared overseas nationals” – a class of individuals distinctive to Assam. The state is a tea-producing hub the place the migration and settlement of Bengali-speaking individuals from neighbouring areas for greater than a century has led to ethnic tensions with the Indigenous natives, who primarily converse Assamese.
The tensions have gotten worse since 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) got here to energy for the primary time in Assam. Greater than a 3rd of the state’s 31 million inhabitants is Muslim – the very best proportion amongst Indian states.
Ali is among the many greater than 300 Muslims in Assam “pushed again” into Bangladesh since Might, in accordance with state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. “These pushbacks might be intensified. We’ve to be extra energetic and proactive to save lots of the state,” Sarma informed the state’s legislative meeting earlier this month.
‘Hell beneath the blue sky’
After he was picked up by the police on Might 23, Ali was taken to a detention centre greater than 200km (124 miles) away in Matia, India’s largest facility for undocumented migrants, in Assam’s Goalpara district.
Three days later, on the morning time on Might 27, troopers belonging to India’s Border Safety Drive (BSF) took him and 13 others, together with 5 girls, in a van to the India-Bangladesh border.
“The BSF was forcing us to cross over to the opposite facet, whereas BGB and [Bangladeshi] locals mentioned they’d not take us as we have been Indians,” Ali informed Al Jazeera, referring to Bangladesh’s border power, the Border Guard Bangladesh.
Stranded in open fields on the no-man’s land between India and Bangladesh, Ali’s group spent the subsequent 12 hours in knee-deep water with no entry to meals or shelter.
A haunting picture of Ali, squatting within the swamp, brows raised and eyes trying again on the viewer, went viral on social media “We noticed hell beneath the blue sky and we noticed life fading away from us,” he informed Al Jazeera.
In the event that they tried to maneuver to the Indian facet, the BSF troopers threatened them with violence, Ali mentioned.
“They shot at us with rubber bullets once we begged them to not push us into the opposite facet. It was no no-man’s land for us. It was as if there was no nation for us.”
Rahima Begum, 50, who was picked up in an analogous method from japanese Assam’s Golaghat district, says she is haunted by the recollections of her time spent within the no-man’s land.
“I used to be crushed by the BGB once I tried to run throughout to the Bangladeshi facet,” she mentioned. “I had no escape. The BSF mentioned they’d shoot us useless if we didn’t transfer to the opposite facet.”
Jiten Chandra Das, a journalist from the border city of Rowmari in Bangladesh who reported on the incident for a Bangladeshi newspaper, informed Al Jazeera he noticed BSF officers firing rubber bullets on the stranded “Indian nationals”, including that additionally they “fired 4 rounds of ammunition within the air” to power them into the opposite facet.
In a press release on Might 27, the BSF denied the allegation, saying it solely tried to cease Bangladeshi nationals from “unauthorised entry into India”.
After a standoff that included indignant interventions by Bangladeshi villagers and senior BGB officers, Ali was dropped by BGB troopers at a border level in India’s Meghalaya state, from the place he made his 10-hour journey again house via dense forests.
A Might 31 report by Assam-based The Sentinel newspaper mentioned the BSF obtained 65 purported Indian residents from the BGB.
A number of Muslims who had been pushed in the direction of Bangladesh informed Al Jazeera that not less than 100 of them returned house on their very own after the BGB left them on the worldwide border. Their claims couldn’t be verified independently, however most returnees mentioned “males in civil attire” obtained them from the worldwide line on the Indian facet and “abandoned them” on a freeway.
The drive to expel “unlawful” Bangladeshis gained momentum in India after April 22, when gunmen allegedly linked to Pakistan killed 26 individuals in Indian-administered Kashmir’s city of Pahalgam, triggering renewed anti-Muslim sentiments throughout the nation.
Apoorvanand, a professor of Hindi on the College of Delhi, informed Al Jazeera the Pahalgam attack gave the BJP – which runs each the federal and Assam governments – an excuse to expel weak Muslim teams, such because the Rohingya or the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants.
“Muslim identities in any type are synonymous with terrorism in India underneath the BJP authorities,” he mentioned. “The federal government treats Bengali Muslims as unlawful Bangladeshis.”
Opposition events and rights teams in Assam additionally allege that the federal government’s ongoing drive solely targets Muslims. “They’ve selectively pushed out Muslims from Matia,” Debabrata Saikia of the Congress get together informed Al Jazeera, referring to the detention centre.
BJP spokesman Manoj Barauh denied the train was religion-based, saying that undocumented Hindus weren’t pushed to Bangladesh as a result of they “may face spiritual persecution” in a Muslim-majority nation.
The Assam state of affairs
Assam has seen ethnic and spiritual tensions for many years, the roots of which lie within the British colonial previous.
Within the nineteenth century, British colonisers developed tea gardens throughout the hilly areas of Assam, sparking large-scale migration of Bengali-speaking employees – each Muslim and Hindu, many from the area presently often known as Bangladesh.
When the British left in 1947, the Indian subcontinent was partitioned to create India and Pakistan, whose territory included East Pakistan, the place most residents spoke Bengali and never Urdu, Pakistan’s nationwide language. After greater than twenty years of a well-liked motion over language, an India-backed rebel in 1971 noticed East Pakistan emerge as an impartial nation, Bangladesh.
Immediately, Muslim-majority Bangladesh shares a 4,096km (2,545-mile) border with India, almost 260km (160 miles) of it with Assam.
In the meantime, authorities in Assam set a closing date of March 24, 1971 – the day earlier than Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan – for tens of 1000’s of Bengali-speaking residents to show they entered Assam earlier than that date to say Indian citizenship.
Such citizenship circumstances are dealt with by Assam’s particular Foreigners Tribunals arrange throughout the state. The tribunals act as quasi-judicial courts, empowered with declaring individuals “foreigners” over minor spelling errors or inconsistencies in authorities paperwork. In a 2019 report, rights group Amnesty Worldwide mentioned the Assam tribunals have been “riddled with bias” and work in “arbitrary methods”.
In the identical yr, Assam printed a remaining Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC), an inventory the federal government had been engaged on for many years to establish “unlawful” residents. The checklist excluded almost 2 million Assam residents, about 700,000 of them Muslims. Tons of of those Muslims have been put in detention camps after the NRC was printed to be forcibly deported.
Ali’s identify seems within the NRC, however he was nonetheless declared a foreigner in 2013 by a tribunal in Morigaon over alleged discrepancies in his father’s identify, Samat Ali, which appeared as “Chamat Ali” and “Chahmat Ali” in several authorized paperwork.
He spent two years in a detention centre after he was stripped of his citizenship, a call upheld by the state’s Excessive Court docket in 2014. He says he’s too poor to problem the choice within the Supreme Court docket.
‘They made me a Bangladeshi’
Many Muslims pushed in the direction of the Bangladesh border have their citizenship circumstances pending earlier than the courts. Subsequently, they are saying that the federal government crackdown in opposition to them was unlawful and arbitrary. Chief Minister Sarma has admitted that his authorities introduced again from Bangladesh “a number of the individuals via diplomatic channels who had pending petitions in courts”.
Amongst them was Shona Banu, a resident of the Barpeta district’s Burikhamar village, who was pushed in the direction of Bangladesh on Might 27.
“I by no means thought the nation I used to be born into, and the nation my dad and mom and grandparents took delivery in, would ship me to Bangladesh border,” the 59-year-old informed Al Jazeera. “They made me a Bangladeshi, however the one time I noticed Bangladesh was when it was 10 metres [33 feet] away from the no-man’s land.”
Khairul Islam, a major faculty instructor in Morigaon’s Mikirbheta village, mentioned his “pressured deportation to Bangladesh felt like a demise sentence”.
Islam was declared a foreigner in 2016, regardless of his household presenting paperwork, similar to land deeds from the British colonial instances, registered underneath his grandfather’s identify. He has challenged the tribunal’s choice within the Supreme Court docket.
Islam mentioned he was “scarred” by the point he spent within the no-man’s land. “We have been handled worse than refugees. Our ache and sufferings have been on full show for everybody to see,” he mentioned. “We have been foreigners for each India and Bangladesh.”
However Nijam Ahmed, 50, was no foreigner, in accordance with India’s official information. A truck driver in Golaghat’s Jamuguri tea property space, Ahmed’s identify seems within the NRC. Nonetheless, he was dumped in no-man’s land.
Ahmed’s son, Zahid, mentioned he got here to learn about his father’s detention solely after a viral video purportedly confirmed him with BGB officers.
“[We are] Indians. My grandfather was within the Second Assam Police Battalion,” Zahid mentioned. Al Jazeera has confirmed the declare, having discovered that Nijam’s father, Salim Uddin Ahmed, served within the state police from the Sixties to 2001.
“Had my grandfather been alive, it could have harm him probably the most,” Zahid mentioned. “A policeman’s son was pushed to the Bangladesh border.”
‘Don’t return or we’ll shoot you’
In current days, nevertheless, the drive to expel alleged “unlawful” Bangladeshis has unfold to other states ruled by the BJP.
Police in Ahmedabad, the principle metropolis in Modi’s house state of Gujarat, mentioned they’ve recognized greater than 250 individuals “confirmed to be Bangladeshi immigrants dwelling illegally right here”.
“The method to deport them is in progress,” mentioned police officer Ajit Rajian, in accordance with native media stories.
In neighbouring Maharashtra, India’s richest state, police final month detained seven Muslims accused of being foreigners and handed them to the BSF for expulsion to Bangladesh.
Nonetheless, they have been introduced again from the borders on June 15 after authorities in West Bengal, their house state, intervened, mentioned Samirul Islam, a parliamentarian belonging to the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) get together, which governs West Bengal. The AITC is part of the nationwide opposition to Modi’s BJP.
“The West Bengal police and different state authorities knowledgeable the Maharashtra police that these individuals have been Indian nationals from West Bengal,” Samirul Islam, who can be the chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board, informed Al Jazeera. “However they got to the BSF with out informing the West Bengal police or authorities.”
Referring to the actions of the Maharashtra police, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee mentioned in a information convention in Kolkata on June 16, “Simply because they converse Bengali, they have been labelled Bangladeshis and despatched to Bangladesh.”
Three of these Muslims Al Jazeera talked to mentioned that whereas they have been in Maharashtra police’s custody, their households and West Bengal authorities submitted paperwork verifying their nationality as Indians.
Miranul Sheikh and Nizamuddin Sheikh, residents of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, have been seen in one other viral video from no-man’s land.
“The BSF stored beating us on our method to the border regardless of us saying we have been from Murshidabad,” 32-year-old Miranul Sheikh informed Al Jazeera. “However they abused us, saying: ‘Don’t return or we’ll shoot you.’”
Al Jazeera despatched an e-mail to the BSF on June 19, searching for their feedback on the allegations. They haven’t responded but.
Assam’s ‘miya’ Muslims
Throughout their sweeping crackdown, police in Assam additionally detained Abdul Hanif, a Bengali-speaking Muslim, from his house in Golaghat’s Noajan village on Might 25. They gave no cause for the detention.
“The police mentioned they may return him after two days,” Hanif’s elder brother, Din Islam, informed Al Jazeera.
For Bengali-speaking Muslims in japanese Assam, nightly raids by police aren’t unusual, given the prevalent anti-migrant sentiments within the state’s tea belt. However a routine verification drive, because the police put it, led to a determined seek for Hanif.
“We’ve gone from one police station to a different, asking for his whereabouts,” Din informed Al Jazeera. “However the police aren’t telling us something.”
In line with Din, Hanif was final seen on the workplace of Rajen Singh, Golaghat’s superintendent of police, with a gaggle of people that have been later despatched to the Bangladesh border.
Hanif’s household insists he’s not a foreigner. “He has no tribunal continuing in opposition to him,” mentioned Din. “He was picked up on mere suspicions as a result of we’re ‘miyas’.”
“Miya”, a pejorative term synonymous with being a Bangladeshi, is utilized by Indigenous Assamese to discuss with Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Al Jazeera requested Singh about Hanif’s whereabouts. “These items can’t be mentioned,” he replied.
A neighborhood resident who was seen with Hanif at Singh’s workplace and brought to the Bangladesh border mentioned their group was cut up into two and that Hanif had most probably been pushed into Bangladesh.
“Individuals have disappeared in a single day,” he mentioned, requesting anonymity over fears of reprisals by the federal government. “He might be misplaced in Bangladesh like many.”
Al Jazeera independently confirmed that the whereabouts of not less than 10 individuals pressured into no-man’s land final month are unknown.
Not less than 4 households in Assam have filed petitions within the Assam Excessive Court docket over the disappearance of their members of the family. Not less than two of those households belong to the Deshi group, thought-about Indigenous Muslims by the state authorities.
“We thought we have been Indigenous Muslims, and subsequently secure,” mentioned Bakkar Ali, the son of Samsul Ali, who had gone lacking. “However it appears that evidently no Muslim is secure right here.”
Bakkar mentioned his father is within the custody of the Bangladesh police. Amirul Islam, a jailor in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district, informed Al Jazeera on June 16 that one other Deshi particular person, Doyjan Bibi, is of their custody.
“The Bangladesh authorities has despatched a diplomatic be aware to the Indian authorities, telling New Delhi that the best way the BSF is pushing individuals into the Bangladeshi border is being accomplished with out due course of,” Faisal Mahmud, the spokesperson for the Bangladesh Excessive Fee in New Delhi, informed Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera reached out to India’s Ministry for Exterior Affairs for touch upon allegations of Indian forces pushing Muslims into Bangladesh, however has obtained no response.
‘Selectively pushed out Muslims’
Angshuman Choudhury, a joint doctoral fellow on the Nationwide College of Singapore and King’s School London, and an analyst of northeast India, mentioned the Assam authorities’s declare of the “pushback” of allegedly unlawful migrants was “truly a pressured expulsion”.
“Pushback means you’re pushing again immigrants who’re making an attempt to enter your borders,” Choudhury informed Al Jazeera. “What the federal government is doing on this case is plucking out individuals and throwing them into one other nation.”
Chief Minister Sarma has justified the federal government’s actions by citing a 1950 legislation, which empowers the district commissioners to expel sure undocumented migrants.
However Oliullah Laskar, a Excessive Court docket lawyer and human rights activist in Assam, says the legislation is just meant for migrants caught “illegally” getting into the Indian territory or those that overstay their visas.
“This act just isn’t meant for individuals who have been dwelling in Assam for generations and have paperwork given by the state authorities to show their citizenship,” Laskar informed Al Jazeera.
One other native lawyer, requesting anonymity over fears of reprisal by the federal government, mentioned the state of Assam itself, throughout a Supreme Court docket listening to in February this yr on the detention of “declared foreigners”, mentioned that individuals whose addresses in Bangladesh weren’t identified can’t be deported.
The federal government mentioned in its affidavit: “It is usually humbly requested that, with out the nationality verification and journey permits from the overseas nation involved, these inmates can’t be deported.”
Final yr, the Assam authorities instructed the police to not report back to the tribunals circumstances of non-Muslims, primarily Hindus, who entered the state earlier than December 31, 2014 the cutoff date specified by India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.
The 2019 legislation permits expedited Indian citizenship to non-Muslims “dealing with spiritual persecution” in Muslim-majority neighbouring international locations in the event that they entered India earlier than that date. The legislation triggered lethal protests throughout India for allegedly violating India’s secular structure, and the United Nations calls it “essentially discriminatory”.
“We’ve to indicate as many as 20-30 paperwork to show our nationality,” says an exasperated Ali. “However Hindus from Bangladesh solely must say they’re Hindus” to get fast-tracked Indian citizenship.
Sitting outdoors her house in Golaghat, Begum, the 50-year-old who was additionally taken by the BSF, mentioned she feels let down by the nation she calls her personal, and the place she was born.
“This nation is mine, however I’m not of it.”